Revealed: This is why Verstappen still saw a future for Lawson at Red Bull

GPblog reported last week that Max Verstappen disagreed with Red Bull Racing's decision to sideline Liam Lawson, which Helmut Marko then confirmed. Meanwhile, the Austrian also revealed what Verstappen's plea was to hold on to the New Zealander for longer, since he'd only driven two Grands Prix for the team.

Speaking to Formel1.de, Marko summed up the Dutchman's reason to want to keep Lawson in the second Red Bull seat: "Max pointed out that the car is very difficult to drive and that if the car was better, Lawson's performance would also be better.

"However, we are obviously working on further development, but there is currently no way to predict how quickly this will happen," Marko said.

Red Bull Racing's chief advisor, incidentally, also heard from the website journalist that Max Verstappen had liked a post by Giedo van der Garde on Instagram.

In it, the former F1driver said, among other things: "Yes, you gotta perform. Yes, the pressure is insane. But in my opinion this comes closer to bullying or a panic move than actual high athlete achievements."

Marko did not respond to the post. Judging by his facial expression, though, it was clear the Austrian was very much surprised by Van der Garde's words. Incidentally, the former F1 driver's post received likes from Nico Hulkenberg and Oscar Piastri, among others.